The PLA at Home and Abroad - Strategic Studies Institute - U.S. Army

CHAPTER 5
TOWARDS AN INTEGRATIVE C4ISR SYSTEM:
INFORMATIONIZATION AND JOINT
OPERATIONS IN THE PEOPLE’S LIBERATION
ARMY 1
INTRODUCTION
Kevin Pollpeter
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) views information
superiority—the use of information and its denial
to adversaries—as the main determiner of success
on a high technology battlefield. While much attention
has been paid to the PLA’s development of modern
weaponry, less attention has been paid to its development
of a comprehensive command, control, communications,
computers, intelligence, surveillance,
and reconnaissance (C4ISR) system. While the PLA
follows Chinese leaders’ guidance, namely Chairman
Hu Jintao’s addresses and the recent Defense White Papers,
to develop overall information capability, it also
sees the development of a networked C4ISR system
capable of locating and tracking targets and fusing
intelligence into a coherent battlefield picture as essential
to carrying out the long-range precision strikes
necessary to attack Taiwan and keep the U.S. military
at bay.
This chapter conducts an assessment of the PLA’s
transformation into an informationized force. In conducting
this examination, the chapter will not focus
on the development of technologies but will instead
primarily focus on the capabilities that such technolo-
193